Flac
Description: Standing approximately 5'7 and weighing near 130lbs, James cuts a dismal, even sickly picture. Often pale, James has medium length, dark brown hair, which is usually left to its own devices (i.e. unwashed, unkept, and often all over the place). His usual attire includes well worn sneakers, frayed but sturdy black cargo jeans, a one size too big shirt, and a dark grey duster that comes to his ankles. He carries with him at all times his Colt Government 2066 in shoulder holster, a spare commlink (even though he doesn't really use it) and a wide brimmed black Fedora. Childhood: His childhood was, in brief, wonderful. While most people in the 2050's and 60's might live in poverty, squalor, or just didn't have it very well, James had it great. 2 loving parents and older sister, modest wealth, friends, everything within reason a child could want, James had. It was due in part to getting what he wanted that led to his dabbling in the matrix. At first it was limited, both by his parent's nervousness about all the odd things they'd heard about, and by the technology available at the time. You see, his parents, being a little connected, heard some of the nastier rumors about the Shadows, and were deathly afraid of something happening to their son, and so forbade him getting a datajack, the one crucial piece of equipment needed to trully experience the matrix. But still, James could read up on everything, and tinker with parts, even browse through the Matrix with his home computer, but what he wanted most was to get in there, experience it first hand. His wishes were finally granted in 2065, when his parents purchased for a brand new (in every sense of the phrase) commlink, with a set of trodes and even a basic simrig. James was exstatic, beyond exstatic even, he almost passed out from sheer joy. For the first few months he had his setup, he could barely be dragged away from his new toys, and lost an unhealthy amount of weight wasting away the days inside what he considered virtual paradise. Come 2065, James was in VR a more normal amount of time, but was growing more and more daring in his online ventures. It was here he made his big mistake, he figured himself a Matrix wiz, and decided to try to learn the ways of some ofthe more illegal Matrix activities, and attempted to hack into just about any low level node he could find. Being successful so far in all his attempts, he decided to skip a few levels, and attempted to hack his way into the local Starbuck's headquarters node, thinking he could write himself up for free coffee every Wednesday or Pastry Saturdays, unfortunately his overconfidence was his undoing. Upon succesfully gaining entry into the node, several Spiders + Black IC were alerted to his presence, and proceeded to treat him like any other threat. In the ensueing mayhem, James was knocked into a coma, only to be discovered by his parents after what seemed like, to them, a 3 day Matrix binge, a habit they thought he'd managed to kick. Rushed to the hospital and hooked up to a whole array of machines, every measure was taken to attempt to diagnose what put him into the coma and how to get him out of it. Fortunately similar occurances happened all over the world back in Crash 2.0 (although for different reasons) and the Doctors figured out it should just be a matter of time before he'd wake up, if at all, and that there wasn't much they could do. 3 months later, he awoke to an empty hospital room with a craving for a good Iced Coffee and the hospital AROs overlaying his vision despite not only not having his image linked goggles on, but not even having a commlink on his person. It was the strangest thing he'd ever experienced, and while he waited for someone to come in and unhook the machines from him and explain what wsa going on, he perused the Matrix with his new found abilities. It was as the Doctors and Nurses came running in that he happened upon a news article detailing similar events and the people they dealt with as having strange new powers, and how the public feared them. This article sparked his memory, and he could remember watching news reports about how these new people, these Otaku or Technomancers as they soon began to call themselves, were attacked and shunned from much of regular society. He decided it would be best not to tell his parents that he had these parents too. He didn't know how they'd react, but he knew it couldn't be good, they were mildly important, as they had put it; and being mildly important they had to keep up as good an image as possible. If it came out that they had spawned one of these new weirdos, well, he couldn't fathom their reaction. Unfortunately, a week or so after accelerated physical therapy, he was on his way home with his family, still with his unsatisfied itch for good coffee, when they found out. They refused to go to Starbucks, insisting that he was still too weak, and that caffiene would make him sick, and weak, and whatnot; pouting, and trying to stealthily surf the Matrix from the back of their car, James happened upon what looked like an old schoolmate, a girl he liked. Only problem was, when he tried to send her a message, figure out what she was up to, the figure winked at him, and left the node. A few moments later, his parents car took an abrubt and dangerous turn, and started heading in the opposite direction from their house. His parents began to freak out, they turned back to their son, hoping it was some sort of prank, but when he looked just as shocked as they, they knew at once something more sinister was up. They got on their commlinks and immediately started looking for ways to get their car back under control, but knowing little about the workings of the Matrix, they couldn't even manage a restart. Seeing an opportunity to test out his new technomancer abilities, James said he needed to lay down, and proceeded to jump into the car's node, upon arrival, he saw the girl sitting down in a vast black emptiness with an ancient hand held game controller in her hands. It looked like it was connected to a box, which was connected to another relic, a television, and he saw on the screen was the buildings in the area passing by. He knew at once she had somehow taken control of the car. "Uh...hey, uhh...Makeyla, what...what the hell do you think you're doing?" He said, wondering just how his friend had managed to steal his car. "My name isn't Makelya, silly, it's Janara, and I'm taking you to Starbucks!" she replied, giving him that same wink from before. "Oh...oh shit! You gotta stop, please! When my parents see where we're going, they're gonna find out!" He yelled, attempting to wrest the controller out of her hands. She sighed, and handed it over, but pointed at the screen, "It's too late," she said, "We're already here..." "Drek." He jacked out, and peeked at his parents, both were staring white faced, straight ahead at the Starbucks. They were pissed beyond belief. They regained control of their car, drove it back to their house, and proceeded to escort James to his room, where they locked him in. Adolescense: It was a full week before they did anything more than slip him some food and let him use the bathroom. They had been frantically discussing the situation, his family, and couldn't decide on what to do. His father wanted simply to be rid of him, too much of a risk for absolutely no gain he said. "No freak son of mine is going to land us in hot shit, that's for sure." His mother was a little more reasonable, though no less scared, she figured they could keep him locked away, say the coma messed him up, and that he was bedridden. That way, nobody would know about his condition, and they'd still be able to keep up with the rest of thier lives. She still loved her son, a little at least, as only a mother could. His sister however, was by far the most reasonable. She figured that hey, he's just a little different now, but he's still family, and he isn't some sort of leper. Treat him as normal she said, he won't do anything stupid. Besides, if we tell the Company, we might be able to move up a little bit, right? This was most confusing of all, and while his father enjoyed the idea of killing 2 birds with 1 stone, he couldn't get past the fact that there was no guarantee of anything. The whole week they argued, back and forth, this idea and that idea, but they couldn't agree on anything until that last day. His mother had managed to convince the others that they should keep him, it was safest, and would arouse less suspision. They all came up into his room to give him the good news, he could stay! But he was forbidden from leaving the house, or even getting near an open window. Hell, better just not leave the room for anything but to clean up. Not all to bad really, get everything handed to you for a few more years, his father said, smug satisfaction adorning his face. They all walked out, thinking that treating him like a dog was the solution. Well, this dog had teeth they would soon come to find out. He bided his time, hoping that good behavior would get him out of his room, which quickly became a wretched facsimile of its former self. This only served however, to further anger his father, who had taken to drinking in his down time. Anytime he would leave his room for more than a few minutes, his father would come up to see what he was doing, and this would inevitably lead to a yelling at, or even a beating depending on how many he had in him. Life quickly became unbearable, as meals would get skipped, which would lead to questions, and questions led to fighting, something James was never good at, being weak from lack of food and exercise. Soon enough it was all James could do to keep from getting hit, it seemed like his father's problems had spilled over into his work, and his mother was no longer capable of attending her precious social events with other well to do ladies, they hadn't yet invented a makeup that could convincingly hide a black eye. 3 years passed in this way, a continueing slide down into greater and greater torment, his parents growing to hate him, blaming him for every one of their problems and setbacks. His sister, who had tried sticking up for him in the first few months, left as quickly as she could for College - she only had to be hit once to know she needed to get out of there, and fast. His only comfort was his loyal Sprite, Jarana. She would not only stay with him and comfort him as best she could, but would even hijack the home's more capable drones to get him some extra food, or even a treat every now and then. Of course this sometimes led to his parents finding out, and some of the worst abuse of his life, but James was none the less grateful for her endeavors, coming to regard her as a sort of surrogate family, someone who loved him despite his "condition," as his parents would call it. It was on James' 15th birthday, shortly after the turn of the new year, that James had finally had enough. He figured himself big enough, and capable enough now to strike out on his own, and so set into works a plan of action. All at once, when his parents were asleep, he had his sprites hack their comms, the house node, and his dad's precious Indian Motorcycle. He send a drone, now under his control, to scout out his parents bedroom, as well as the rest of the house. The drone found his parents fast asleep, and while snooping around in the closet for some valuables to sell, it stumbled upon a rather large pistol. Figuring it had to be for home defense, James decided he'd be better off with it, instead of his unstable family. He sneaked into their bedroom, stole the pistol (and the spare clip laying next to it), ran down to the garage, and told his sprites to do their worst, but to focus specifically on anything important - bank account information, insurance, health records, SINs (if possible), anything they could get their hands on, wreck. As he started up his bike, and rode out of his house and out of Seattle proper, his sprites got to work, demolishing, hiding, and corrupting everything his parents had on or connected to their comms. Lone Star never found him, and why would they? He fled into the night, out of Seattle proper, out of neighboring districts, and out into the wilderness in the surrounding areas. He stopped when Jarana started to pester him about fuel, and that they wouldn't be able to get back, or go forward, if he didn't know what he was doing. This plea managed to snap him out of his reverie, and he slowed, stopping by a large Redwood. He sat, and looked upon the stars, just visible after having traveled an hour out of city. He didn't have any sort of plan, he had nowhere to go, no one to go to, he just wanted to get away, to flee his nightmare, and he had done so. Now was the time to sit and think, and so he did. At first it was uncomfortable, both because he was sitting on hard earth, and because he was so far from the comfort of the Matrix. But as the night turned into day, and that day into night, he found it easier, gradually, to be so far from everything he'd ever known. He began to think of what he had available, in terms of both skills and tools. His list was meager - a motorcycle, a (now) cheap commlink, and his abilities as a Technomancer. He had to go somewhere, get some money, and then leave. And as much as he hated to admit it, the best place to go would be right back into Seattle, into one of the slums. There was good money there, if one knew where to look, or so he heard. It would be difficult, but he should be able to make it work well enough. After there however, well, only time would tell, but the sky's the limit, eh Omae? Till Now: Having made up his mind, James treks back to Seattle, and quickly finds a place to stay in the Redmond Barrens. A week or so of dodging gangers (everyone else on bikes) and getting a good idea of how life worked in the Barrens, he picks up a truck to work on, and a job as a mechanic, part time of course. Things go smoothly for a long while, James manages to get some decent parts on the cheap from his boss, and earn a few more hours a week in the process. A year or so goes by, and feeling pretty good about things, James moves into an abandoned building with sometimes working water and electricity, and purchases a lockbox for his meager possessions. The lockbox he bolts to the floor, and being that his new home is closer than ever to the Chop Shop, his place of employement, he begins to relax and get comfortable. This all changes however, when he gets invited to a bar with the boss and his new employee...